570 



confirraingmy preconceived opinions, and of which 1 cannot do better 

 than give a summary. Some of the facts, I believe, had been pub- 

 lished in Batavia, in 1844, by Mr. Jacobson,t in the Dutch language. 

 In the preface to his work, Mr. Ball says : — " It will be seen by dates 

 incidentally adverted to, that the facts and most of the materials of 

 this work, were established and collected thirty years ago." — " These 

 facts, as well as other materials, were derived from conversation with 

 growers and manipulators from the tea districts ; from written docu- 

 ments furnished by Chinese ; from published works in the same lan- 

 guage diligently sought out ; and also from correspondence with a 

 Spanish missionary long resident in the province of Foken. These 

 were all put into their present form full twenty years ago, and were 

 read to one or two friends during my residence in China." — " They 

 were not, however, so arranged, with any view to immediate publica- 

 tion." — " They were thus disposed as the best mode of recording and 

 keeping together, the facts and materials I had collected." — " But it 

 was not till the year 1844, when I recived Mr. Jacobson's Handbook 

 on the cultivation of tea in Java, that I found ray own views so far 

 confirmed, and ray information such as to justify me in bringing my 

 labours to a close." 



The processes peculiar to the preparation of black tea, are styled 

 Leang-Ching, To-Ching, and Oc-Ching, and these all consist in care- 

 iully-watched and regulated processes oi spontaneous heating or slow 

 fermentation of the leaves until a certain degree of fragrance is de- 

 veloped. The leaves are said to wither and give, and become soft 

 and flaccid. The utmost care, practical skill, and experience is 

 required in the properly conducting these operations, and as soon as 

 the proper point is arrived at, the leaves are to be immediately removed 

 to the Kuo or roasting-pan. After being roasted and rolled two or 

 three times, they are then to be dried, and this is effected in the 

 Poey-long, which consists of a cylinder of basket-work, open at both 

 ends, and covered on the outside with paper ; it is about Sj feet in 

 height and \^ in diameter, which diameter is diminished in the cen- 

 tre, like an ordinary dice-box, to one foot and a quarter. This stands 

 over and round a small charcoal fire, and is supplied with cross-bars 

 about fourteen inches above the fire, on which an open sieve contain- 

 ing the tea is placed ; and a small aperture about an inch and a half 

 in diameter is made in the centre of the tea with the hand, so that an 

 ascending current of air and the products of the combustion pass 



■\ ' Handboek v. d. Kult. en Fabrik v. Thee.' 



